Sugar Coated (8 page)

Brynn still didn’t respond to his admission. She couldn’t quite find the right words to say at that moment. Though she had a million thoughts racing through her mind, the one thing that seemed to repeat over and over again was
:
he’s like me.

Jonah watched Brynn for a moment before the smile started to fade from his face and the light she had seen in his eyes began to dull. He looked back down at the book in front
of him and cleared his throat.

“I know it sounds crazy,” he said simply, and though it sounded like he would say more, he didn’t. He simply turned more pages of his book, looking for a city he had never heard of on the word of a girl he didn’t know.

“Not to me it doesn’t,” Brynn finally said, taking a deep breath and allowing the smile she had been holding inside to light up her face. “I’ve gone in twice,” she said almost proudly.

Those two whispered sentences were enough to bring the smile back to Jonah’s
lips as he looked up at her, looking the way that Brynn felt—like he had finally found someone like him.

“That’s nothing,” he said in a way that sounded like he was bragging, “I’ve gone in about five times.”

“Liar,” Brynn said with a grin.

“I’m dead serious,” he said, spreading his hand wide in front of him as if to show he was unarmed. “I’ve gotten tossed around a few times, but honestly, I don’t think it’s as dangerous as everyone seems to think it is.”

Brynn thought back on the two times she had gone into the ocean. The first time she had been shaken up, but not in any serious danger. The second time was a different story. If Ty hadn’t pulled her out she might have drowned, though that had more to do with the fact that she was so lost in thought that she wasn’t concerned with saving herself.

“I feel like being in that cold, powerful water makes me think more clearly,” Brynn admitted, looking over at Jonah to see if
he felt the same way.

He was silent for a moment, looking into
Brynn’s blue eyes with his own.

“I think you’re dif
ferent, Brynn,” he finally said.

She decided in that moment that she loved the way her name sounded when he said it, but lodged that little detail away
to take out and examine later.

“So are you,” she said
, wondering how in a city full of people, she managed to stumble across someone so similar to her.

“It probably sounds crazy, but my favorite part of being in the waves is the feeling of being completely out of control. It’s the only time I’ve ever felt that way,” Jonah said, leaning back in his chair and looking up at the ceiling with
a ghost of a smile on his lips.

“Feeling reckless,” Brynn agreed with a nod. “I like that part.”

“Are you feeling reckless at the moment?” Jonah asked as he turned to face Brynn. He raised an eyebrow at her as a challenge and let his smile curl up on one side. “I am.”

Chapter 8: Reckless

Jonah and Brynn stood on the small sandy hill that rose up just before the beach really began. The wind whipped against them and the bright orange sun hung low in the sky, slowly making its descent toward the horizon. Brynn shivered slightly in the breeze, her jacket and boots discarded on the ground. Jonah stood barefoot beside her, wiggling his toes in the chill sand and gazing out at the water with a look of pure exhilaration on his face.

“You do realize that we’re completely insane
, right?” he asked, never taking his eyes off of the water or losing the smile on his handsome face.

“I thought you said the ocean isn’t all that dangerous,” Brynn countered, also keepin
g her eyes locked on the water.

“No, I said it’s not as dangerous as everyone thinks. It’s still dangerous. It’ll probably still kill us if we keep goi
ng in,” he corrected.

“Thank you for that comforting speech,” Brynn said sarcastically. “It’s really fun, but then you die,” she repeated in
an imitation of her new friend.

“On that note,” Jonah said, walking straight at the sea without a backward glan
ce at Brynn.

“Wait for me,” she called out, running
to catch up to his long stride.

They both walked confidently together right up to the edge of the dry sand, and then stopped abruptly. Jonah looked over at Brynn, questioning wordlessly if she would go i
n first.

“It looks really cold,” she said, surveying the water and remembering how f
rigid it had been that morning.

“You’re not backing out are you?” Jonah asked her, looking for a moment as if he didn’t believe she had ever gone into the ocean in the fi
rst place.

“I went in this morning, for your information. I’m just not sure I’m up to freezing
again,” she said with a shiver.

“You have to just get right in.
If you do it slowly you make it worse for yourself,” he said wisely.

“Either way, you free
ze, though,” Brynn pointed out.

“Well, then I guess there’s only one thing to do
,” Jonah said with a deep sigh.

“And what is that?”

Without a word to Brynn, Jonah walked over and slung her over his shoulder with ease, making it seem as if she weighed almost nothing. Brynn squealed as she kicked and tried to get him to let go of her, a mix of terror and exhilaration coursing through her body. She had been brave enough to go into the ocean by herself before, but being carried backwards into the freezing turbulent water was a whole new feat.

“Jonah, I’m going to kill you if you put me in that water,” she screamed, though most of her volume died on the wind.

“You said you wanted to be reckless,” he called over his shoulder with a deep laugh, still trudging through the water that was now almost up to his waist. Brynn could feel the icy ocean reach up and touch her feet as a small wave hit them.

“Let me go!” she yelled, trying to so
und angry through her laughter.

“Fine by me,” he said, hoisting her forward off of his shoulder so that her back hit the glacial water a
nd she was instantly submerged.

Brynn pulled herself up out of the freezing ocean and gasped for air, the temperature instantly taking her breath away. She wiped the salt from her eyes then looked up at Jonah who stood
over her, smiling triumphantly.

“Not okay,” she said, standing up and throwing her shoulder into his chest to knock him off balance so that he fel
l backwards into the water with a splash, though he managed to wrap his arms around Brynn’s waist in the process, taking her down with him.

“What was that for?” Jonah asked with a smile as he sat up in the now shallow water after the waves had r
olled back away from the shore.

“Gee, I don’t know,” Brynn answered with a fake scowl, narrowing her b
lue eyes into tiny slits.

“I was just doing what you asked,” he said innocently, right as another wave came and hit them, submerging th
em both briefly in icy silence.

Brynn coughed as she surfaced once more in the knee-deep water, still crouching down so
that it came up to her chest.

“Do you want to go a little farther?” Jonah asked, a
challenging smile on his face.

“Farther?” Brynn repeated, looking over her shoulder. The farthest she had ever voluntarily gone into the ocean was up to her waist, and even then the waves had taken control. She couldn’t imagine how dangerous it would be when a wave crashed down on her in even deeper water. “Is it safe?”

“No,” he said honestly. “But that’s what makes it worth doing. Besides, you’ll get hit a lot less than you do this close to the shore. The waves don’t break as much out there.”

Brynn thought this explanation over for a moment. Jonah did seem to be telling the truth. Even as she looked out toward the horizon she could see that the waves were breaking right where they stood. If she went out a bit farther she would be past the breaking point
and might actually feel safer.

“Can yo
u swim well?” he asked-, seeing the hesitation on her face.

“Of course I can
,” she said almost defensively.

She suddenly decided that she didn’t want Jonah to think of her as a normal girl. She wanted to prove to him that she could go as far into the ocean as
he could without being scared.

Winking at Jonah, she took a deep breath and dove under the surface, opening her eyes in the murky
, green water. She could see the waves rolling above her but amazingly enough, when she was under the surface the actual waves didn’t affect her at all. She saw the white water of the breaking waves and the tunnel they created as they rolled into the shore, but she was merely an observer. From her vantage point under the water she seemed to be completely cocooned from the pull of the tide.

Feeling much safer under the dangerous waves than she had at the surface, she kicked off from the sandy ocean floor and propelled herself toward the dark unknown. She swam hard, glad that her parents had taught her how to swim so well. Her strong arms pulled her quickly away from the shore and she didn’t bother looking back until her lungs couldn’t take it anymore. Breaking the su
rface, she smiled triumphantly.

“Who’s scared now?” she asked Jonah, turning around toward the shore to see his r
eaction to her show of bravery.

To her surprise, however, she had swum so far away from the shore that Jonah was now just a dot in the distance. It took all of two seconds for Brynn’s panic to set in. She could feel the color drain from her face as she realized that even if Jonah started swimming now, it would take him some time to get to her. She had to have started swimming out just as the tide was pulling back to have made it that far
in such a short period of time.

Forgetting how brave she was trying to be, Brynn began to flounder in the water, remembering all of the animals she had learned about on her interactive education screen back at home. Most of the sea creatures she’d learned about seemed too horrible to be true. But what if the grey rubbery fish with large sharp teeth really existed? It wouldn’t be often that they had the opportunity to feast on a human. No one else was crazy eno
ugh to come out into the ocean.

“Jonah!” she screamed, letting her fear get the better of her.

Jonah’s face disappeared from her view as he ducked down under the water to come and get her. Brynn tried to start paddling back toward the shore but the tide seemed to keep pulling her back to the vast expanse of the ocean behind her. She tried to feel the sandy ocean floor with her feet, but only made contact with more freezing water below her. She was suddenly very aware of just how little she could see underneath her. Halfway down her legs, her feet seemed to disappear into dark green nothingness.

“Jonah!” she called again, more out of fear than anything, since she could clearly see that he hadn’t surfaced again since his descent into the ocean. “Help!” she cried, just as her new friend’s familiar face came into vie
w only a few feet ahead of her.

Jonah held out his hand, stretching his arm until their wet, slippery fingers interlocked. He pulled her over to him and wrapped an arm around her to keep her fro
m being dragged away once more.

“Hold onto my neck and hold your breath. I’m a really stro
ng swimmer,” he instructed her.

Brynn nodded in understanding and slung her arms over his broad shoulders, using her knees to cling to his back. She took her cue from him and took a deep breath when he did before the two of them p
lunged back into the icy water.

Holding onto him, Brynn could feel that Jonah had been right; he was a strong swimmer. She could feel the muscles in his back flex with every broad stroke of his arms; feel the icy water rushing past them as he swam swiftly against the tide. She kept her eyes closed, afraid of what she might see in the murky green abyss that surrounded her, and simply concentrated on holding her breath.

Just as she was certain she would have to let go of Jonah to get some air, they broke the surface. Brynn continued to hold onto him even as he stood in the shallow water and walked back up onto the dry beach. She kept her face pressed firmly against his neck, sheltering it from the icy wind that whipped up sand all around them.

When Jonah stopped walking, Brynn willed herself to let go of him. Her bare feet hit the sand and she looked up at the second boy to sa
ve her from the waves that day.

“When I said we should go farther out, I didn’t mean you should try to swim to the other side of
Halcyon,” Jonah said, breathing deeply from the exertion of saving Brynn.

“I don’t know how I got out there so fast,” she said, sitting on the dry sand that now coated their wet clothing.

“Well, you don’t have to worry about me thinking you’re brave,” he assured her. “You’re crazier than me, even.”

He sat down next to her on the cold sand and wiped his hand over his face, trying to remove the drops of water
that rested on his sharp cheekbones.

“Does that mean I never have to do a brave thing again?” Brynn asked hopefully, pulling her dry grey
jacket on over her wet clothes.

“Yeah, you’ve definitely ma
de your point,” he assured her.

He tilted his head back and closed his eyes in the last rays of sunshine, soaking something up. She couldn’t tell if it was the warmth of the sun or the exhilaration of the moment that he was enjoying more, but either way it made Brynn feel grateful for the terrifyi
ng adventure she had just had.

“Thank you for coming to get me,” Brynn said after a moment of silence had stretc
hed on between the two of them.

“I thought about leaving you out there, but I needed someone to come to the library every day and boss me around. Who else would do that? The
Angel
?” he joked, opening his eyes and smiling warmly at Brynn.

“I’m sure she’d love to boss you aro
und, actually,” Brynn answered.

“Oh, she has,” Jonah said emphatically, making Brynn laugh. “On many different occasions, actually.”

“Why does that not surprise me at all?” she asked with a shake of her head, pulling her coat tighter around her small frame to try to protect herself from the wind.

Jonah glanced over at her, taking note of this gesture. “Cold?” he asked, though they both already knew the answer to that question. “Do you like hot chocolate?”

* * *

One of the biggest benefits of the various stores, restaurants, and rec buildings around the city was that two people who didn’t know each other very well could go out and get to know each other in a public place. Though it was true that anything you could ever want was readily available at your own home, it wasn’t customary to invite a complete stranger back to your house after having just met.

It was for this reason that Jonah and Brynn sat in the dimly lit café, drinking hot chocolate and learning about each other as the m
oon streamed in through the glass walls and ceilings. The blue glow of the moon was countered only by the soft orange light emanating from the lamps on each table.

Amber had messaged Brynn several times since the group separated, but Brynn would simply reply with a quick,
Still feeling sick
. She felt slightly guilty over this lie, but it was true that her two dips in the ocean that day had left her feeling chilled and worn out. Though she was sure she wasn’t getting sick, sitting there with Jonah in her stiff, dry clothes felt like the best medicine she could find.

“Okay, how about this one,” Brynn began, excited to finally have someone to ask all of her questions—someone who wouldn’t dismiss them as nothing. “Why don’t the trains have windows?”

“That one’s always bugged me!” Jonah exclaimed, causing a few people around them to look over at the couple curiously. He laughed quietly at his outburst and hunched over closer to Brynn as if this would help to lower his volume. “I feel like there has to be some way to make glass thick enough that it won’t break when the train reaches a high speed,” he said with a shake of his head.